Disclaimer: the characters of Starsky and Hutch, and all show related facts, places and people don't belong to me. No money is being made from this. The OC's, however, are mine.
Dedication goes to all the people I've met here and on the S and H lists, for their inspiration and confidence they've given me. The first three chapters of Soul Bonded were beta-ed by Cindy E.; the rest was done by Starsky's Strut. Proof reading has been done by Wuemsel. However, all mistakes made are entirely mine. Feedback is welcome.
Warning: this story will get pretty emotionally intense in upcoming chapters, and deals with the feeling of loss, more than anything else. If you are sensitive to this: do not read. If you do, don't come complaining to me about it, afterwards! In other words: If you can't stand the heat, vacate the cooking area. This story contains the death of a child, as well as some disturbing riot scenes. Rated: R for upcoming scenes.
This is NOT a death story.
Catagory: Hutch h/c, but also Starsky hurt. Both S. and H. Angst.
Author's note: this is the first S and H story I've ever written, on paper, so it's very special to me. I finally found the time, and the confidence to digitalize it, and post it here.
First and foremost, I'd like to give a big heartfelt hug to Strut. I could never have done this without her. Her input, suggestions and ideas were invaluable to me. It's not always easy to write about two people who live in a country you have never been to. We both had a lot of laughs at some of the mistakes I made, and since I'm a non-native English speaker, they sometimes were quite funny. Credit for some of the lines, and storyline ideas goes to her. Secondly I'd like to thank Wuemsel for her encouragement, and for helping me to keep both Starsky and Hutch in character when they'd both lost so much of themselves.
I wanted to make the bond between Starsky and Hutch a bit more tangible (gen-wise speaking) than usual is being portrayed. This in depth exploration may not be the way you picture their bond to be (again, only gen-wise speaking!), but it is the way it's going to be in this story. I enjoyed this 'exploration' very much, and I hope you will enjoy this story.
Feedback is always welcome, as long as it is constructive
Enjoy.
"Soul Bonded"
(By Kreek©June2005)
Chapter 1
The blue-eyed man grabbed his hand. He felt the warmth of his touch and saw the love and concern reflected in his eyes. The man whispered his name: "Starsky..." The voice familiar, the sound soothing as it continued, "I won't be coming out… not this time."
Starsky sat on a bed as the sound of the words faded into silent darkness, making him feel… lost. "No," he answered. "Don't go…" But the blond man disappeared. "No!" Starsky yelled and woke up, the scream caught in his throat.
Sweat poured from his face as he sat up heaving to catch his breath. His heart was pounding in his chest and his mouth was dry.
"Having that same dream again?"
It took him a moment to wake up completely and straighten out his thoughts. He felt a hand on his arm and noticed his wife Belinda looking at him with her brown eyes he loved so much. He nodded. "Same one." He turned to sit on the bedside and wiped the sweat from his brow with his left hand. "I don't know what it means… I have the feeling that it's important somehow." He looked back at her.
"Dave," she said seriously. "If it's that important, you'll find out what it means, sooner or later."
He sighed, nodded, and decided to give it a rest. "I'm gonna get some water. Want some?" She shook her head, and by the time Starsky closed the bedroom door behind him, she was already fast asleep.
Starsky fumbled his way in the dark over to the kitchen where he picked up a glass and filled it with water. The cool liquid slid down his throat, clearing his thoughts. He had been having this dream a few nights in a row now. The first night he hardly remembered any of it. But recently things seemed to linger, mostly feelings like familiarity, love… and despair.
Tonight, however, something else had surfaced, triggered by the dream. An emotional response he had not expected. It was the feeling of utter loneliness, as if he'd lost something, or someone, very dear to him. It was so strong that it awakened him. But he did not have a clue as to why he would feel that way. Overwhelmed by it, he could not bring himself to tell his wife.
His life, up till now, had been pretty standard. After having moved out of his parents' house, a job at a small hardware store had paid for the bills, nicely. And when his parents had died he'd started to travel. After a couple of months he'd met Belinda who was about to start up an Italian restaurant of her own in a small Canadian town on the West coast called Burnaby. Last month they'd gotten married and now they even thought about having kids.
He filled the glass again as his mind tried to justify his feelings. They didn't make any sense. There was nothing in his life that could account for the dreams he'd been having. The only thing that could make him feel as lonely as he did now was if he'd lose Belinda, or the restaurant.
"Maybe it's a premonition," he thought, feeling quite tired for he had not slept well all week. But somehow he knew that was not the case. The dream already started to feel unreal.
He drank the last of the water and went back to bed.
Chapter 2
The little boy looked hesitantly at the blue-eyed blond man kneeling in front of him.
"Take it," the man said warmly, trying to put a five dollar bill in the boy's hand. "Buy your mother something nice, huh."
Slowly the boy's features turned into a shy smile. He momentarily forgot the lousy street he was on, the passing cars, the huddled people rushing by who were protecting themselves from the rain that poured out of the grey cloud-laden sky. He reached out and touched the raw paper of the dollar bill with his small hand, slowly closing his fingers around it. The man let it go, smiling at him.
The boy suddenly noticed the gun belt strapped underneath the brown leather jacket. His eyes went large as he clutched the bill to his chest. The man seemed to notice his shock and closed his jacket.
"It's all right. I won't hurt you. I'm a cop."
But the boy only saw the gun, the danger, and the consequences that his short life had been riddled with so far. He turned around and ran, away from the fear and the pain he did not yet comprehend.
And away from love.
But he still had the dollar bill, and he knew exactly what kind of present his mother would like.
"You can't save 'em all, Hutch…" The evening had just started. Darkness came early this night. Starsky stood huddled in a doorway, watching the scene a few yards ahead of him with a slight smile.
His partner sat crouched for a moment, then looked up. "Well", he said, putting his hands on his knees and standing up, "I can try, can't I?" He walked over to the doorway, while glancing back to see the boy disappear in an alleyway.
"You know what, Starsk? That boy reminds me of a friend I use to have: scruffy, curly hair, always cruising the streets. My parents hated him, but he had a heart of gold."
Starsky looked at him. His hands were buried deep in his cardigan's pockets and his collar was up to protect him from the rain. However, little rivers of water still managed to trickle down his neck, however. His jeans were soaked as were his shoes, causing him to shiver. "How 'bout the friend you have now, with a heart of gold, cruising the streets, curly-haired? I'm drowning, man!"
Hutch smiled. With his white blond hair and light brown leather jacket soaked through, his black turtle neck and brown trousers were remarkably dry. It annoyed Starsky to no end.
Finally Hutch seemed to notice his miserable appearance "C'mon, I'll buy ya a beer."
That put a smile on Starsky's face. "Yeah? Okay. Well, c'mon White Knight, don't stand there in the rain too long. Ya might get wet." The brunet turned around and practically bounced inside the bar they had been standing in front of, neatly avoiding a clever retort from the blond. Still smiling to himself, Starsky knew that all Hutch could do was shake his head and follow him inside.
The woman sitting at the window looked out into the pouring rain. Rivers of water slid down the glass of the dirty window in its useless attempt to get in. The bar was warm and quiet. Not many people had dared to venture out in this downpour.
The lady liked the rain. It settled in perfectly with the dark and grey mood she had found herself in ever since her husband, Marc, died over a year ago. She had tried to go on then. And after a few months she actually succeeded in doing just that. However, the dead feeling inside her never quite seemed to go away. She'd learned to live with it, but she couldn't remember the last time she'd been happy, the last time since she'd genuinely smiled.
She was watching the blond man on the street. The whole scene with the little boy defrosted her heart a little bit. Her eyes followed him as he headed up to the bar and entered it along with another guy. This one, a brunet, had apparently been seeking shelter from the rain in the doorway.
The two men came in. Her breath caught in her throat when she was watching the blond and the brunet making their way over to the bar. What came into view caught her completely by surprise.
She saw something she had never thought she would see again. She definitely had not expected it to show up on a dreadfully dark grey day as this one, and in two men at that. A connection… One she had once shared with Marc.
It blinded her, and for the first time in over a year she smiled.
She looked at the blond again, studying him more closely. Suddenly her smile faded. What she had seen scared her.
Somehow she had to warn them.
Chapter 3
"Well, well, well. Look what the cat dragged in. If it isn't my two favourite detectives," Huggy said, putting down the beer pull he was cleaning. He walked over to them. "You look like ya all could use a drink."
"Yeah," Starsky agreed, jumping on a bar stool, while Hutch sat himself down at a table in front of it. "That and a towel." Huggy threw the sour-looking detective the desperately needed item.The brunet took off his vest and started drying his hair. "Thanks Hug," he said gratefully. "You saved my life."
"Don't I always," Huggy grinned.
Hutch caught the towelhis partnerthrew at him and said, "A beer and water please Hug."
Starsky picked up his heavy, water-filled cardigan from the bar and muttered, "I would think you'd have seen enough water for one night, Hutch."
"Hey, hey, don't do that!" Huggy shouted in irritation when Starsky vehemently started wringing his cardigan above the floor. "I spent the entire morning cleaning the floor!" He pointed an angry finger at Starsky: "I have you know that The Pits has never been so clean."
"Really?" Starsky mocked, while curiously looking around. Except for a lady at the window and a couple of regulars in the back, the place was deserted.
"Have fun all you want but at least this Huggy Bears is clean."
Knowing Hutch's preferences for all things healthy and sane, Huggy put the glass of water on the table for the blond and shoved the beer in Starsky's hand. How Hutch had ever ended up with having Starsky, the beer and cold pizza type, for a partner was beyond him.
"Huggy, any news?" Hutch asked, elbows on the table, gently sipping the water.
"Damn the man looks tired," Huggy thought, checking out the signs of sleep deprivation around the blond's eyes. "Starsky's not doing any better. This case's really getting to them."
Huggy hesitated. The question brought him back to reality. "Yeah well…"
Lately the city had been wrecked with a string of murders. All users. All kids. To the casual observer it looked like they had OD'd. However, autopsy reports confirmed there had not been enough dope in their bloodstreams to make an OD a very likely possibility.
Fortunately, the crime lab had found something else in the bodies of the victims: a mixture of compounds they could not make heads or tales of. While most elements remained a mystery to them, the lab did manage to identify several trace elements of lethal poisons. In minute amounts these poisons could be addictive, and eventually would kill.
Four kids had been found dead so far. All of them located within Metro's district. The last one of them had been the small teenage girl, Micki.
That was two days ago. Starsky had told Huggy they'd found her inside a garbage container. He had not told the bar owner all the grim details, but Huggy could tell by the absence of Hutch that night that this murder had severely shaken both of them up. Huggy recalled Hutch had taken a liking to the girl no more than a few years ago. She had even tried to stay clean for a while. But old habits die hard.
Finding that small girl inside a garbage container, tossed away like dirt, had caused the duo to pick up their pace. They had been working on the case almost twenty-four hours a day now. However, by the looks of things, they weren't any closer to anything resembling a solution than they were when the murders had first started.
"Well, guess that's about to change…" Huggy thought grim. "You ain't gonna like it," he said putting himself on a stool next to Starsky.
"Huggy." The impatient, tired note in Starsky's voice was not lost on the bar owner. "Get to the point, will ya?"
Huggy took a deep breath and braced himself. "Word is," he began slowly and then shook his head. "Oh man…"
"Huggy!" Hutch urged.
"Okay. Someone new is in town. Someone pretty big. Has every pusher and dealer going undercover, even the crime-lords. Kids have to turn to this new one now to get whatever it is they're craving, ya dig?"
Starsky leaned in closer, resting his left arm on the bar and putting his chin in his left hand. Apparently he was in no mood for waiting games. "Does this person have a name?"
Big brown eyes shot from Hutch to Starsky and back to Hutch again. Huggy slowly answered. "Karl Samuel …Forest."
Silence descended as both detectives visibly froze.
Huggy noticed the shock in Starsky's eyes and saw him shooting a glance at his partner.
With the glass of water suspended between the table and his mouth, Hutch was staring in slight shock at the both ofthem. Then he sat back, his leather jacket creaking. His cold voice seemed to make the ambient temperature in the cosy bar drop a few degrees. "Forest."
"Related. A brother. Or so it seems. "
Starsky looked at him. The brunet's rich blues eyes were coloured with an inner turmoil betraying both his hate upon hearing the name and his concern for his partner. "A brother?" he asked, lowering his voice to a dangerous level.
Huggy nodded, keeping his eyes on the silent Hutch.
"You're telling me," Starsky continued, "that the man who strung my partner out two years ago has a brother? One who just happens to set up shop right in the middle of our district?"
Huggy turned his attention away from the blond, which he suspected was precisely what the New Yorker in front of him had meant to do. "Yeah man. Whatever Karl's plan is, it doesn't take a genius to figure out that it has something to do with the two of you." He shrugged. "But that's all I know man…"
The emotion in Starsky's eyes slowly diminished. He lowered them to stare into his glass of beer, thinking. Upon hearing his partner's voice, he looked up.
"We owe you Hug," Hutch said, nodding his thanks. However, Huggy could tell by the far off look in the blond's eyes that he wasn't really aware of the bar owner's presence anymore.The detective stood up and walked outside.
Huggy sighed. He had a bad feeling about this. The last time they had dealings with a Forest it had cost them a lot more than precious time… Especially Hutch.
"Sorry man," he said to Starsky, whose brooding features were now facing the door behind which his partner had just disappeared.
"Yeah," Starsky answered him. "Yeah".
Huggy sighed again. He picked up the glass he had been cleaning and went back to work.
Tbc